In Brief

Nayan Bhowmick married Aparna Chakraborty in 2000, but she left the matrimonial home in 2001 after he and his family pressured her to resign from her job. He sued for divorce on desertion grounds in 2007; the trial court granted it in 2010. The High Court reversed, holding desertion unproven. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, finding the parties had lived separately for 24 years without reconciliation or hope of reunion. The Court held that prolonged separation amounts to cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act and invoked its Article 142(1) power to grant complete justice by dissolving the marriage on irretrievable breakdown grounds, notwithstanding the absence of strict statutory fault proof.

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